Quote:
Originally posted by
Kindred
Personally, I still think it is intentional. I think it's more than a coincidence that the original dolls were called "Sambo" while he calls his "Bimbo." It's just a play on the name. He is intentionally juxtaposing an
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Personally, I still think it is intentional. I think it's more than a coincidence that the original dolls were called "Sambo" while he calls his "Bimbo." It's just a play on the name. He is intentionally juxtaposing an image that invokes strong emotions with cute doll figures, or at least that's my interpretation.
Edit: And let me add, I'm not judging his art at all. I think art is made to invoke emotions.
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I think that's an interesting interpretation. I would caution you, though, to take care in superimposing a tradition of racist imagery from the United States on Hoppek's work. Germany has its own very culturally specific and highly charged vocabulary of visual semiotics regarding race - especially in a post-WWII era. Within such a context - especially in Hoppek's work, which deals so specifically
with Germany's racial politics - I feel that reading Sambo into Bimbo is a bit of a stretch.
Little Black Sambo was translated into Japanese and had a release there, but I don't think that imagery has taken hold in any other non-English context. For this reason, the Sambo face would
not be provocative in a Germanic context. This is the main reason I do not think Hoppek's work is referencing this; it would be lost on his audience and therefore would not create any kind of apparent dissonance or tension in his work. Sometimes, a cigar is just a cigar, as they say.
